Databases are frequently used to support many different kinds of activities, including storing and processing business data for the purposes of reporting and analysis by members of a business. The amount of processed data and stored data may be large, and therefore need to be organized in the database according to a specific data model for efficient use. A data model may refer to a physical organization of data (e.g. how/where data is stored in database tables, how instances of data are related, etc.) within the database.
A database system may access the data stored in the database, and facilitate processing and reporting activities based on the data, at least in part, by implementing a meta-model. Within the database system, the meta-model may define a set of metadata objects and types of relations there-between so as to represent, and facilitate access to (e.g., for reporting), the data in the database. The metadata objects may describe various aspects of the data (e.g. database tables, fields/columns of database tables, etc.) in the database, taking into account the data model. Further, the meta-model may define types of metadata objects that may be further instantiated in/by the database system.
The database system may be implemented through a data reporting tool or other type of application, which accesses data of the database system (“system data”) including the metadata objects, in order to access, process, view, and/or cause new or modified data to be stored in the data and/or the system data. Further, the application may be used to create reports and/or visual representations of the data, or derivations of the data from the database. The system data may be organized in a specific way according to the meta-model so that the application, which may be specific to the meta-model and/or database system, can access, modify, store, organize, and/or represent the data and/or system data in a specific manner.
However, it is not uncommon for a company to want to change the manner in which data is accessed, processed, stored, viewed, and/or reported. Thus, as an example, a company may desire to change from one database system to a new database system, but desire to retain some or all of the functionality (e.g. reporting ability) of the previous database system. However, with respect to the previous database system, the new database system may have a different meta-model, and may relate to and/or access data in the database, define types of metadata objects, and/or organize respective system data differently. As a result, a company may have to systematically organize system data migrated from the previous database system in terms of a meta-model of the new database system, in order to create or modify new system data that maintains the functionality of the previous database system. Accordingly, much time, effort, and resources may be expended in preforming such systematic modifications in order to accomplish these objectives.
These and other issues are solved by a method and apparatus for converting from a source database system to a destination database system, of the present disclosure.